Office Bearers

Rashesh Shah has spent over 25 years in the corporate and financial markets sector and is one of the leading spokespersons for the industry.

Rashesh started Edelweiss in 1996 that has since grown into one of India's leading diversified financial services conglomerates.The INR 270 billion Edelweiss Group is present across all significant areas of financial services including Credit, Housing Finance, Financial Markets, Commodities, Asset Management and Life Insurance. The Group has 240 offices in 125 cities, including eight international offices in New York, Canada, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mauritius, Nigeria and Chad with headquarters in Mumbai, India.

Rashesh is passionate about financial services and the role it can play in translating India's vast savings into investments; thereby powering economic growth and development. Under his leadership, Edelweiss has combined technology, innovation and growth oriented entrepreneurship with a strong focus on risk management to become one of the more successful, stable and well respected financial services companies in India.

Finance Asia, Hong Kong ranked Edelweiss as India's Best Managed mid-cap company in 2013 and 2014.

A regular commentator on macro- economic policies, development matters and financial markets in the mainline and financial media, Rashesh serves on the Boards of various companies and public institutions. He has previously been on the Executive Committee of the National Stock Exchange and also on the SEBI (Stock Exchange Board of India) committee to review Insider Trading Regulations. He currently serves as Chairman, Maharashtra Council of FICCI and is a part of the Directors Forum formed by corporate stalwarts under the aegis of the FICCI Center for Corporate Governance seeking to improve the quality of board-level governance in Indian industry.

An MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Rashesh also holds a Diploma in International Trade from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. A voracious reader, a fitness enthusiast and an avid runner, Rashesh has recently participated in a triathlon and continues to participate in marathons across the globe.

Sandip SomanySr Vice President

Widely recognized as a pioneer of the Indian ceramic industry in India, Mr. Sandip Somany is the Vice Chairman & Managing Director of HSIL Limited, the leading building materials company in India. An entrepreneur at heart, he joined the family business in the year 1982 and is the driving force behind the company today.

He brought with him freshness in the company's thinking, evaluated the market needs and gradually changed the face of HSIL from being just a sanitaryware manufacturer to a home solution provider.

It was under his leadership that HSIL invested significantly into glass technology and acquired AGI, Krishna Ceremics, Raasi Ceramics and then Garden Polymers. In tune with the company's new vision of providing customers with a quality of life as per global market trends, branching out into premium kitchen products, luxury sanitaryware and faucets, consumer products, etc.

Recognizing his pioneering initiatives in the field of glass and sanitaryware, Mr. Sandip Somany was the President of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2012. He is the former President of International Chamber of Commerce India chapter (headquartered in Paris), Chairman of Indian Council of Sanitaryware Manufacturers (INCOSAMA) and member of the Executive Committee of FICCI and Governing Council of All India Glass Manufacturers Association.

Mr. Somany holds a degree in Engineering from the prestigious University of California, U. S. A. and has a Bachelor's degree from the Delhi University.

Sangita ReddyVice President

Greatly inspired by her father and founding Chairman, Dr. Prathap C Reddy's mission to bring healthcare within the reach of every individual, Sangita Reddy formally joined Apollo Hospitals in 1983.

Currently, Ms. Reddy is the Joint Managing Director of the Apollo Hospitals Group. Widely acknowledged as the pioneer of private healthcare in India and a proponent of integrated healthcare, since its inception in 1983, Apollo Hospitals has touched the lives of over 50 million individuals from 140 countries.

Passionately committed to transforming healthcare using effective and efficient technology, Sangita has steered Apollo Hospitals to harness technological advancements in accelerating positive transformation and using Telemedicine. She was also instrumental in the group's retail and primary healthcare expansion, leads the Human Resources and Education initiatives of the group and led a partnership between Apollo Hospitals and the National Skill Development Corporation.

She chairs the CSR activities of Apollo Hospitals Group

She was on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Digital Health and was nominated by the Government of India as a Member of the Technology Development Board, Department of Science and Technology. She is an Independent Director on the board of many companies and a member of the Rockefeller Working Group focused on the private sector's role in global healthcare.

Sangita Reddy graduated in Science with Honours from the Women's Christian College in Chennai, India. She then did her post-graduation courses in Hospital Administration from Rutgers University, Harvard University and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Sangita was conferred with the Honorary Doctorate by Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

Pankaj R. PatelImmediate Past President

Mr. Pankaj R. Patel is the Chairman and Managing Director of Zydus Cadila - Cadila Healthcare Ltd. Zydus Cadila is an innovative,global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of healthcare therapies in over 50 countries worldwide.

With a core competence in the field of healthcare, Zydus provides total healthcare solutions ranging from formulations, active pharmaceutical ingredients and animal healthcare products to wellness products. The group has 1200 researchers across 19 sites converging to look at differentiated medicines for the future. From APIs to vaccines, biosimilars and niche technologies, the company looks at different ideas and concepts to bridge unmet healthcare needs.

Exemptia, the world's first biosimilar for Adalimumab, the largest selling therapy worldwide for inflammatory arthritis was launched in December 2014 by Zydus.

Zydus is also the only Indian pharma company to launch its own patented NCE - Lipaglyn, the world's first drug to be approved for the treatment of diabetic dyslipidemia.

Mr. Pankaj Patel is currently the President of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). He is a Member of the Board of Governers of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Governers and Society, IIM, Udaipur. He is the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of IIT, Bhubaneswar. Mr. Patel is currently on the Governing Board of The Ahmedabad University and the Chairman of School of Life Sciences, Ahmedabad University. He is also a Member of the Board of Management of the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and a Member on the Governing Board of the Gujarat Law Society and Nirma University.

He is the Executive Chairman, Vice President and Trustee of the Gujarat Cancer Society and Chairman of the Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute, a Regional Cancer Centre and one of the largest cancer centres of India, reaching out to the needy and underprivileged cancer patients.

Dr. Sanjaya BaruSecretary General

Dr. Sanjaya Baru took over as Secretary General of FICCI from 1st September 2017.

He has been editor of India's major financial newspapers, The Economic Times, Financial Express and Business Standard. He was professor of economics at University of Hyderabad, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Delhi) and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore).

Dr. Baru has been Media Advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (2004-08) and Director for Geo-economics and Strategy, International Institute of Strategic Studies, London (2011-16).

He was Member, National Security Advisory Board of India (1999-2001), India-ASEAN Eminent Persons Group (2010) and the Indian National Defence University Committee (2002-2004).

Dr. Sanjaya Baru will also be Secretary General of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), India Chapter; Secretary General, FICCI Confederation of MSMEs (CMSME) ; and Director General, Indian Council of Arbitration.

Some of his notable publications include: The Strategic Consequences of India's Economic Performance; India and the World: Essays on Geo-economics and Foreign Policy; Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh; & 1991: How P V Narasimha Rao Made History.